Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, holds a special place in the hearts of many Jews. It was he who canceled General Grant’s infamous order, Number 11, expelling Jewish traders from several states. And it was Lincoln who first enabled rabbis to serve as chaplains in the Union army.
Beyond that, Lincoln himself — whose birthday Americans celebrate on Saturday, Feb. 12 — is perceived as a true humanitarian, helping to free the United States of the scourge of slavery, just as the Jews in ancient Israel had been freed from slavery by Moses.
According to The Jewish Virtual Library, “American Jews have felt especially attracted to Lincoln as the emancipator of the black slave, as a victim of violence, as a dreamer of peace, and as the spokesman of a way of life ‘with malice towards none, with charity for all,’ which matches the idealism of the prophets.”
During the Civil War, Maj.-Gen. U.S. Grant, on Dec. 17, 1862, issued an order — Order No. 11 — calling for the expulsion of all Jews in his military district (parts of Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee).
At the time, there was a black market in southern cotton, and Grant believed that this illegal market was being conducted “mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders.”
President Lincoln revoked the order a few weeks later after protests from not only Jewish leaders, but from Congress and the press. The New York Times described the order as “humiliating” and a “revival of the spirit of the medieval ages.”
